'Toon Reviews 15: Steven Universe Season 2 Episode 10: Chille Tid

Chille Tid

Whenever a new power for Steven reveals itself, the resulting cartoon can either be mildly humorous or significantly intense.  This reveal fits the latter description.  Like many strong cartoons of the series, it builds off a simple life moment to lead to the intensity. 

Things start off with a necessary yet near impossible task of finding where Malachite, the fusion of Lapis Lazuli and Jasper, is underwater.  The task’s equivalence to finding a needle in a haystack tires everyone out, especially since according to Garnet, Malachite being a fusion built on anger and mistrust as opposed to love is unstable and could get loose and cause destruction at any time. 

The group, barring Garnet, goes back to the temple for a slumber party.  There’s a charm to the slumber party scenes where Steven convinces Pearl and Amethyst to get some sleep along with him, well mostly Pearl.  It goes to show how considerate Steven is for others through them through their exhaustion helping even if he knows they don’t need what humans need.  In addition, there’s great entertainment from the dreams Steven has which are very fun and creative. 

My personal favorite is one of a common day in Steven’s life portrayed as an old black-and-white sitcom with the Crystal Gems fitting certain archetypes. 

However, through these dreams, the tone builds in intensity when Lapis appears, and is in great agony throgh leaking water from her eyes and mouth and freaking out when he finds her in a dark abyss.  It’s eventually concluded that Steven has unlocked the power to connect with others in his dreams. Considering how his powers have always been unlocked by genuine love for certain things and people, and that he's been worried about Lapis, the way this dream power is unlocked is a nice continuation of this idea.  The power at work during such bizarre moments as Steven’s dreams is a shocking yet interesting way to introduce it, occurring in places where literally anything can happen. 

Steven attempts to intentionally track her down through his dreams, resulting in the most intense moment of the cartoon.  In a dark area with shallow water, Steven finds Lapis looking beaten up and manning watery weights.  When she gets distracted, Jasper rises up in shackles, menacingly crawling towards Steven right before she’s dragged down by Lapis again. The sequence ends with a tragic declaration of Lapis where she insists that she not be found and remain where she is to keep Malachite under excruciating control.  Her dramatic and anguished tone sells the force of the moment and pains she takes for holding such a powerful beast down.  In fact, the whole sequence is a nice analysis of what a fusion’s psyche, and for destructive Malachite, it’s dark and threatening.  It’s also this moment that justifies the Crystal Gems not doing anything about Malachite until she’s loose at the start of the next season.  This is very relatable to instances where nothing can be done until a certain time, and in the end, everyone learns to accept that.

That leaves us with a dreamy, yet intense watch with shocking reveals, creative sequences, and the continued trend of the endearing way Steven develops his powers. 10/10

The Ranking

1. Sworn to the Sword
2. Chille Tid
3. Keeping it Together
4. Full Disclosure
5. We Need to Talk
6. Reformed
7. Joy Ride
8. Say Uncle
9. Rising Tides, Crashing Skies
10. Love Letters

The next Steven Universe review will cover the start of a story arc that introduces the fusion Sardonyx and an incident that messes with the Crystal Gems' team dynamic.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is a Hey Arnold review on "Casa Paradiso" and "Gerald's Tonsils."

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'Toon Reviews 1: Hey Arnold Season 1 Episode 4

Helga’s Makeover

Here’s another cartoon with a certain social issue as its theme that could’ve come off as preachy and uninteresting, but is made a lot more interesting and appealing by the character going through the issue, and even offers a unique perspective.  The issue in question is feminism mostly involving stereotypes of what girls should be like.  It comes into play when all the girls, except Helga, are invited to a slumber party held by the popular rich girl, Rhonda.  You see, the consensus is that girls are into things like gossiping, the latest fashion, and making themselves look beautiful with makeovers.  As anyone can easily tell, Helga isn’t like that.  She enjoys being bossy and mean, doesn’t care much about her appearance, and would rather do things like play sports.  Most people wouldn’t really see this as a big deal, but these traits of Helga are precisely why she wasn’t invited to the party, and it gets even worse when many people around her claim that she’s not really a girl.  The fact that the teasing Helga gets is a result of her interests may be shallow and just plain wrong, but it works because it’s clearly what the people behind this show are going for.  What sells their vision is how effected Helga is by others not treating her like a girl just because her interests and customs are different .  She may have come off as a bully from what we’ve seen in this season, but that doesn’t change the fact that what she’s going through isn’t fair or right, which in turn makes it easy to feel for her.  Now, for the unique way of getting the message across, we have Helga go on to prove that she really is a girl by giving herself a makeover by really dolling herself up with makeup, basically doing what is stereotypically associated with girls.  Then when presenting herself at Rhonda’s party, she becomes a big hit with everyone, even though you can tell from her line delivery that it’s just an act.  What’s unique about this is what Helga’s act eventually leads to and how far she’s led to go with these girly stereotypes.  The girls at the party don’t just give makeovers and talk of fashion, they also give each other facial masks to make themselves look young even though they’re only 9.  Rather than conforming to their ways, Helga actually makes the smart decision by refusing the offer and then calls the girls out for being this ridiculous with their makeovers.  What’s more, when the other girls wonder what else they can do, it’s Helga who shows them other options, leading to an interesting outcome to the boys popping in on the party.  So, in the end, Helga proves herself as a dynamic character for humanly conforming to norms due to teasing, but ultimately making a name of her true self.  This in turn does a lot of justice for the feminism issue and this cartoon. 9.5/10

The Old Building

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a simple story of Arnold getting caught in the middle of a conflict whose appeal lies within the little things added in to spice things up.  Here, we’re introduced to one of the many diverse residents of the boarding house Arnold lives in.  His name is Ernie, a short fellow whose job and main passion is demolition with wrecking balls.  His love for demolition which is sometimes combined with his short temper makes him a highly entertaining character for the cast, and in this cartoon he and Arnold have an interesting dynamic where Ernie gives some demolition talk and Arnold goes along with what’s said without really understanding.  As for the conflict, it all has to do with the titular old building called the Circle Theater.  Ernie’s set to demolish it for his 500^th demolition.  At the same time, Grandma is set to protect the building from being torn down for, as part of a scene that gives depth to her relationship with Grandpa, the Circle Theater was where she had her first date with him.  How does Arnold relate to this conflict?  He agrees to help Ernie destroy the Circle Theater, but after hearing Grandma’s story, he forgets his commitment to Ernie and agrees to help save it, only to remember his promise to Ernie later on.  This is a highly believable conflict for Arnold.  I mean, he’s agreed to help destroy and protect the same building, and he can tell that both Ernie and Grandma have good reasons for doing what they want to do with the Circle Theater, so of course he wouldn’t want to let either one down (though it’s not really understandable why Ernie doesn’t consider demolishing something else).  However, in the end, Arnold pulls off some impressive problem-solving skills.  He remembers one thing both sides of the conflict have in common which is the famous jazz singer Dino Spumoni who Grandma heard sing at the Circle Theater all those years ago, and who inspired Ernie to go into demolition with one of his songs.  He calls Dino who explains how much the Circle Theater means to him and Ernie is moved to not destroy it since it’s a part of Dino’s history satisfying everyone.  This cartoon is also the first mention of Dino Spumoni on this show, and as a lover of music, from his first song “Smashed,” he’s a nice addition to the cast for adding some jazzy class.  Plus he gets several cartoons to develop his character, with one coming at the end of this particular season.  As for this cartoon as a whole, it’s a basic story, but the likable characters, strong believable conflict, and the first of many memorable Dino Spumoni songs make it a charming watch. 9/10

The Rankings

1.      Stoop Kid

2.      Arnold’s Hat

3.      Helga’s Makeover

4.      Downtown as Fruits

5.      The Old Building

6.      Field Trip

7.      The Little Pink Book

8.      Eugene’s Bike

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the fifth episode of this season: "6th Grade Girls"/"The Baseball."